Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, Sepoy,  28mm

Its been a while since we played an Indian Mutiny game, and this return to the sub-continent was inspired by the discovery of a set of rules – Sepoy, by Graham Evans, sold by Caliver Books. They’re based on the reliable File Leader English Civil War set, but they have a lot of their own mutinous quirks.For instance, the number of six-figure bases the Mutineers can command each turn is decided by rolling a die. Roll a “1” and your army just sits passively and awaits its fate! It allows small British units to seize the initiative and achieve deeds of derring-do – which is exactly what happened in the real thing.The plucky British players (see the picture above of Bill and Colin) advanced on the bridge where the Grand Trunk Road spanned an otherwise impassable river, driving off the Mutineer engineers and herding the defenders off the board. Dougie and I played the mutinous defenders. In fact the mutineers never really stood much of a chance, but the fun lay in trying to stop the British achieving their goal – clearing the Mutineer army from the table. In the end the rump end of the Mutineer army was still holding on, but the British were securely in control of the bridge, and the next few miles of the road to Cawnpore lay open…In our previous Mutiny game we’d used In the Heart of India, our own version of Chris Peers’ Heart of Africa rules. Well, both sets worked well, but we all felt that Sepoy might have led to a pretty one-sided battle, but it was probably a better representation of an Indian Mutiny engagement. Still, where’s the fun in a turkey shoot – especially if you’re the turkey! 

Tags: Sepoy